The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions: Book Review

When M and I got married, one of my friend bought us The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. It was a great gift and it’s a lovely, helpful book.

 

Since I’m a vegetarian and M can’t eat soya or dairy products, sometimes it can feel like a struggle to find dishes we can both make. What I like about this book is that it has a number of basic recipes and explanations for useful substitutions (such as for homemade milks other than soya or non-egg mayonnaise) and then many recipes that use those items, so you can see how to do it and get inspiration.

 

The recipes are very tempting, though there are a few items that I haven’t been able to find in my small city in the UK (rice milk powder, for example). I’ve really enjoyed this book and plan to make quite a few of the recipes. I think it would be a great book for any vegan/vegetarian and also for anyone with food allergies.

Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian

I have mentioned my cousins before here; I have no siblings, so these two guys are like brothers. One of them very thoughtfully bought me Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian cookbook.

It’s a James Beard Foundation award-winning book, so you know it’s good, but besides the accolades, it’s a great cookbook. It has over 600 recipes, all vegetarian, and they are divided up into categories such as dried beans and peas, grains, dairy, sauces, and so on. Jaffrey also has a list of helpful resources.

Some people are really unsure about how to make healthy vegetarian food, but this book offers a huge number of tips and recipes. Nothing is too complicated to make either. I personally especially love the aubergine dishes, but most of Jaffrey’s recipes are great.

I am lucky to have received such a wonderful book as a present from an equally wonderful relative.